Windsorite Joins Crew of Paw Patrol Spinoff
Story by Michael Seguin
Photography by Lourdes Lasala
There’s a word to describe people like Delaney Beaudoin. And the word—pun very much intended—is animated.
Delaney is a 23-year-old 3D Animator from Windsor. A graduate of Walkerville Secondary School and Sheridan College, she is currently plying her trade on Spin Master and Jam Filled Entertainment’s Rubble & Crew, the highly anticipated Paw Patrol spinoff.
Bespectacled, blonde and presumably overcaffeinated, Delaney practically bubbles with enthusiasm.
“I’ve always been a very creative person!” Delaney admits. “I started with watercolors. I wanted to be one of those fancy classical gallery painters.”
However, as with many artists, real life demands continued to press against the borders of her canvas.
“Despite working in the visual arts, I’ve always had a bit of a practical brain,” Delaney laughs. “I always knew that painting would never earn me a living wage. So I started searching for a middle ground. Something that would let me be creative while still taking care of myself.”
And Delaney eventually found that middle ground. At, appropriately enough, the Most Magical Place on Earth.
“We went to Disney World on my sixteenth birthday,” Delaney recalls. “This might have been my fifth time there, so I was a repeat offender. By then, I already knew I wanted to be an Animator. And I was old enough to take one of those tours through the tunnels under the park. I even got to have a private lunch with an Imagineer, one of the park’s engineers.”
The Imagineer opened Delaney’s eyes to Disney World’s inner workings.
“I realized that there were other possibilities for me,” Delaney states. “I could create rides! Or sets! However, the technical side was a little daunting. And, as far as I know, there’s no fast-track program to get a degree in Imagineering.”
That fateful trip to Disney World caused Delaney to broaden her horizons. It taught her that her creative gifts could be shared with a wider audience, beyond the confines of her canvas.
“I started scrolling through the Bonus Features on DVDs and Blu-rays,” Delaney explains. “I remember watching some behind-the-scenes clips of Pixar’s Brave. There was all this information about the technical side of such a production. It was still so daunting, but I found it so compelling. The animators had all these issues trying to make Princess Merida’s hair look right.”
After graduating Walkerville Secondary School, Delaney attended Sheridan College’s Animation program.
“At Sheridan, we experimented with a lot of different art forms,” Delaney states. “The program covers a lot of different steps, along a lot of different pipelines. They let you try out a bunch of different mediums. You try hand-drawn animation. You try stop-motion animation. You try 2D puppet animation. You keep your hands in a lot of different pots.”
However, while still at Sheridan, Delaney became called to one specific type of animation.
“I found out really early what I excelled in: 3D work,” Delaney admits. “I started to specialize. For my third and fourth year electives, I took everything related to 3D animation. I made the program work for me.”
Delaney credits the immediacy of the process with capturing her attention.
“3D animation is fast,” Delaney stresses. “Which, I think, suits my temperament. I tend to make these sweeping decisions very quickly. At twelve, I decided I wanted to be an animator. First year of high school, I decided I wanted to get into animation school. Second year of animation school, I decided I wanted to do 3D animation. I’m fast paced! And that’s what I like about 3D work. It’s all about real-time movement. And that’s where the higher end industry is working right now.”
And Delaney’s determination has paid off for her. She is currently working her first industry job as a 3D Animator on Rubble & Crew.
“It’s a Paw Patrol spinoff,” Delaney explains. “It’s based on Rubble, a fan favorite character. It’s extremely popular with the target demographic. It’s about Rubble and his family of construction-pups. The show follows the crew as they go on adventures, build stuff, demolish stuff and have fun in Builder Cove, their home city. It’s a happy little show about family.”
And, Delaney admits, having her work out there in the world, beyond the canvas, is overwhelming.
“It’s kind of crazy knowing something I’ve worked on is out there!” Delaney states. “They sent out a promo around Christmas during a football game. They uploaded a trailer to the Paw Patrol YouTube page, and it currently has a couple million views. I still don’t know how to feel about that!”
Still, Delaney credits her crewmates and Jam Filled Entertainment for coming together to create such a product.
“It’s not just me,” Delaney explains. “There’s a lot of people working behind-the-scenes. I’m happy to be a small part of the process. And I’m happy to represent Windsor’s animation community.”
And, as with all artists, Delaney’s hunger for new projects is ravenous.
“I would love to work on a feature someday,” Delaney states. “Something very acting-heavy. Something that excites people. Something like the new DreamWorks movie, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. If I could work on something like that, I would be so, so happy! Or maybe something kind of independent! I’ve worked on my own projects as well. I thought I would hate them, but I love telling my own stories.”
In addition, Delaney is also spending her spare time working on a short film of her own.
Her Sheridan thesis film, Risqué Business, is about a team of burlesque dancers swindling one of their patrons out of all his ill-gotten fortunes. It was funded by a crowdfunding campaign late last year.
“I don’t have an official release date yet,” Delaney explains. “But when it’s close to done, I’ll put something up on my Instagram page at @delfinopierre.”
Delaney ends our interview by quoting Zootopia: “I just want to try everything.”
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